


Avant-garde

by JazzRaft



Series: Aesthetic Appreciation [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff and Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 00:22:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,545
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10058828
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JazzRaft/pseuds/JazzRaft
Summary: While it took no effort whatsoever for Lunafreya to exceed expectations across the Altissian art scene, her brother – in an adorable effort to make himself feel useful as her manager – continued to rub the right elbows and offer flattery where it wasn’t deserved to increase his sister’s already faultless image. Foolish, but endearing, Ardyn thought.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on [tumblr](http://jazzraft.tumblr.com/post/156809289607/ardyn-x-ravus-the-paints-supposed-to-go-where) for #19 in [this prompt post.](http://jazzraft.tumblr.com/post/156511645930/send-me-a-pairing-and-a-number-and-ill-write-you)

“The paint’s supposed to go _where_?”

Ardyn gravely nodded towards the ceiling, only smirking once Ravus turned his head to look up and sigh in resignation. Honestly, he was amazed that he’d managed to convince the man to do as much as he already had, let alone this next tasking endeavor. Less amazed when he remembered just how devoted Ravus was to his sister’s artistic pursuits.

“You know, if you needed a painter, you should have asked Luna,” Ravus mumbled, retying his hair in a short ponytail before ascending the latter.

“A single color on a flat surface for a woman of your sister’s caliber? A complete waste of her talents, I wouldn’t dare insult her by asking her to perform such a menial task.”

“But you take no issue insulting me?”

“Might I take a moment to remind you that it was _you_ who volunteered for this?”

The wordless grumble he got in response made Ardyn’s smile widen. While it took no effort whatsoever for Lunafreya to exceed expectations across the Altissian art scene, her brother – in an adorable effort to make himself feel useful as her manager – continued to rub the right elbows and offer flattery where it wasn’t deserved to increase his sister’s already faultless image. Foolish, but endearing, Ardyn thought. Foolish enough for him to manipulate and endearing enough for him to take a genuine liking to the man.

“Are you quite certain that you don’t want my help?” Ardyn called up from the couch, mostly out of courtesy than out of selflessness.

“I was certain I didn’t need your help before, and I am certain that I don’t need your help now.”

Ardyn snorted in amusement, head rolling back on the couch to admire Ravus’s previously completed work. The walls of the loft had been coated exactly to Ardyn’s specifications, smooth and even, not a speckle or splatter out of place. During their frequent run-ins throughout various art exhibitions, Ardyn would often tease Ravus that he wasn’t perfect at everything when he argued to the contrary, but he was beginning to have his doubts. For a man who had no reason to excel at home improvement, his work was flawless.

Seducing ridiculous favors out of the man was Ardyn’s new favorite pastime, groping for an idea so outlandish and beyond Ravus’s capabilities just to prove that he couldn’t do everything he set his mind to. A more difficult challenge than Ardyn had originally anticipated, but he didn’t mind extending his time within the other man’s company.

A paradoxical creature, Ravus. Determined to be perceived as aloof and apathetic, yet desperate for recognition. Powerful, yet vulnerable, and fascinating to Ardyn… and attractive to boot. Especially like this, he thought, turning his gaze back to the man on the latter. Rare indeed were the occasions where Ardyn was graced with the elegance of Ravus in such a casual setting. Blue jeans and a gray v-neck, sleeves rolled to the elbows and slate paint across his knuckles – sacrificing his own cleanliness for the sake of keeping the walls neat. Strands of lustrous, sterling hair straying disobediently from his hair-tie to glimmer against high cheekbones.

As pretty as one of his sister’s paintings. Once Ardyn had asked Luna if she’d ever considered asking her brother to model for a piece, and she’d immediately agreed that, certainly, he was an ideally aesthetic specimen, but that he always insisted against posing for a portrait whenever she asked.

“He’s very proud, but not enough in his appearance. He’s not shy about most things, but modeling is too… intimate for him to feel comfortable, I suppose,” she’d said, smiling across the exhibition hall at where her brother was negotiating a price for one of her pieces.

A damn shame, Ardyn thought, explicitly dragging his gaze from head to foot. To which Ravus sighed without looking down and asked, “Do you need something?”

“Not so much a need as a _want_.”

To a less observant person, the way Ravus turned on the top of the latter to face a space on the ceiling away from Ardyn would have passed as a mere shift in concentration. But Ardyn critiqued the minutiae of high-society art pieces for a living. He knew the nuances of people as well as he did the stroke of a paintbrush. He knew when a man as romantically starved as Ravus was evading a flirtation solely for the sake of appearances. He didn’t want to let Ardyn see the effect he had on him.

It was something Ravus had been trying to avoid for months, maybe even since the first time they’d met. Whether it was turning to a client the second Ardyn complimented him or biting back a too-quick retort to one of his more lascivious flirtations, he could see Ravus’s avoidance of his advances for the façade it truly was like red paint on a white canvas. If he wasn’t mutually interested, why else did he insist on frequenting Ardyn’s apartment on these outlandish little challenges he issued him?

“Why don’t you take a break?” Ardyn asked, gliding to his feet and sauntering over to the ladder. “You’ve been working non-stop, you must be exhausted.”

“I’m perfectly capable of estimating my own limitations, thank you.”

Twice as many syllables as was necessary for a simple “no, thank you.” Which meant Ardyn was making him nervous. Ravus had a habit of over-compensating his vocabulary when he was on the verge of exposing a vulnerability. Ardyn leaned a hand against the ladder, watching the width of Ravus’s shoulders grow taut beneath the thin fabric of his shirt the longer he looked up at him. Watching him wind himself into tighter and tighter little knots – while amusing – tended towards the boring when Ravus refused to snap.

Which was what inspired Ardyn to give the ladder a little nudge. Nothing huge. Just a totter. A little warning. But it was enough to get Ravus’s attention. His wintry gaze turned hot with disbelief, hands clutching his seat at the top of the ladder with a white-knuckled grip as he glared down at him.

“What. Are you doing?” he demanded, tongue clicking against his teeth to define the “what.”

Ardyn merely shrugged, lazily hooking a finger around the ladder and tugging it towards him, rocking it onto the other leg before pushing it onto the other.

“Ardyn…” Ravus growled, unamused.

Even at the height of danger, Ravus somehow managed to stay his panic off of his face more than he sought to spare himself from injury. Keeping up appearances even in the face of mortal dread. Ardyn had to fix that. As casually as if he was kicking a can down the street, Ardyn swept the legs of the ladder out from under Ravus, sending it and the paint can balanced on top of it crashing into the tarp on the floor.

And sending the distressed man clinging to the rungs tumbling straight into Ardyn’s waiting arms. Only once he was halfway to the floor did Ravus let his mask contort, eyes jammed shut against the threat of impact before slowly cracking open when no such collision was made. Ardyn grinned down at him, and Ravus glared up at him.

“Are you _trying_ to break my neck?”

“I would never dream of it. It’s far too pretty of a neck.”

Saying so, Ardyn tip-toed his fingers along the blanched skin, shamelessly dancing them over the quickened pulse that drummed beneath it. Ravus continued to glare at him, dissatisfaction clear in his eyes, but a peach-stained blush bleeding its way across his cheeks.

“Did you try to kill me just so you could molest me?”

“I can’t seem to get your attention unless I resort to extreme measures.”

“There is no attention to give.”

Ardyn’s brow curled up, humored by the contradiction of Ravus’s words with the blush on his face. His nails grazed slowly along the man’s jaw, stopping to rest just beneath the knob of his chin and inclining his face upwards. Indecision sputtered throughout Ravus’s gaze, mismatched eyes flickering in subtle zig-zags as he searched Ardyn’s face from brow-tip to lower-lip. Ardyn wanted Ravus to make the first move – to finally admit to the attraction he was so dutifully suppressing for the sake of his stoic professionalism.

When Ravus moved, Ardyn’s smirk spread, thinking he was finally going to get what he wanted. But the lean upward was to push his hand against Ardyn’s chest in order to get himself back on his feet and out of his arms. Ardyn whined in annoyance and Ravus straightened his clothes, grabbed his jacket, and proceeded to the door.

“Not going to finish what you started?” Ardyn called to him, examining the barely painted ceiling.

“No, I fully intend to.”

Ardyn cast his eyes towards the door. Ravus had his hand on the knob and his steely gaze on Ardyn, a glint that he’d been waiting for finally shining in the dissimilar irises.

“We’ll finish this tomorrow,” he promised, and slipped from the loft like a flash of quicksilver.

Ardyn had been playing a game that Ravus had refused to participate in for the longest time. While Ardyn’s tactics had been initiating for months, it seemed that Ravus’s had only just begun.


End file.
